Were you the victim of a car crash caused by an uninsured or foreign driver? Have you been involved in a hit and run? You can now claim compensation with the help of the motor insurers bureau and clickandclaim's personal injury solicitors.

Until 17^th June 1946 no remedy was available for victims of uninsured drivers. Although Parliament stated that motor insurance was compulsory, there were instances whereby the victim of an accident received no compensation because (a) the third party (person who caused the accident) never bothered to take out any insurance (b) the insurance policy was incomplete or (c) the insurers of the policy were able to avoid liability for some reason.

In order to rectify the problem, a company called the “Motor Insurers Bureau” was formed. The Bureau has a number of members all of whom are motor insurers who, on a yearly basis, contribute to the MIB fund. In essence, the MIB is funded by insurance premiums paid by members of the public to those insurers.

There are two different types of accident which the MIB will cover, namely, victims who have sustained injury and/or loss as a result of an uninsured motorist and victims of an injury as a result of a motorist who is never found i.e such as hit and run accidents.  Any application therefore has to be made under either “The Uninsured Drivers Agreement” or “The Untraced Drivers Agreement”. There are differences between the two schemes hence the reasoning for the two Agreements.

As is the norm in any claim for compensation, an application to the MIB must be made within 3 years of the accident. The MIB have extremely strict procedures which must be adhered to and therefore, it is beneficial to start a claim as soon as possible following the accident. In addition, the sooner the claim is made, the more likely it is that evidence regarding the accident will still be in existence i.e witness statements, photographs and Police Reports.

Once an Application Form is sent to the MIB, they will make the necessary enquiries into the accident and assess whether the claim should be accepted under the MIB scheme.  If the claim is accepted, then the MIB will pay the applicant compensation for the injuries (and sometimes out of pocket expenses) as an insurance company would do.

There are, however, some circumstances whereby the MIB have stated that an application will NOT be allowed. Some restrictions are as follows:-

i)          The injury/damage must arise from the use of the vehicle on a road in Great Britain.  A road is defined as “any highway and any other road to which the public has access”, and includes bridges over which a road passes.

ii)         An applicant who allows himself to be carried in a vehicle when he knew, or should have known that (a) the vehicle had been stolen or taken unlawfully (b) there was no insurance for the vehicle or (c) the vehicle was being used in the course of committing a crime or escape will not be accepted under the scheme;

iii)         In accordance with the Untraced Drivers Agreement also states that the incident must have been reported to the Police within 14 days or as soon as reasonably possible.

The MIB will agree to pay a fixed sum of costs for the Applicant to have Solicitor representation. In view of this, MIB applications for both the Uninsured Drivers Agreement and Untraced Drivers Agreement can be dealt with by clickandclaim.